GST Connect

In the wake of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) rollout, the market for safety matches has shrunk, say industry stakeholders.The GST payers can hardly afford the increased tax burden, and the sale of matches has come down by 25%, J. Devadoss, secretary, South India Match Manufacturers Association, told The Hindu on Sunday.Bundles of match boxes are piling up in many factories. And the 18% GST levy on production of safety matches by semi-mechanised and fully mechanised units has affected the prospects of the stakeholders relying on the traditional industry. The higher GST rate will cast a long shadow on the industry in the long run if the GST is not lowered.To safeguard the industry and protect the livelihoods of manufacturers and the workforce, the GST should be lowered to 12%, he stressed.Manufacturers fear that the price of their product will increase in the coming year. At present, a match box is being sold at Rs1. But the price can jump to Rs2 next year. Not only retail traders, bu…

GST registrations up, but fewer tax returns in August

The tax base or those registered for GST has gone up in August but the number of filings so far is lower than the previous month as businesses grapple with technology issues and take advantage of the government's decision to waive penalty for late filing.So far in August, the second month of GST, around 35 lakh tax payers of the 67.73 lakh required to file returns have managed to pay tax and file returns, which is a little over half the population. Data available with GST Network, the agency managing the IT platform, showed that over 87 lakh businesses have registered so far, which includes nearly 25 lakh new players apart from the 63 lakh or so who migrated from service tax, central excise and state VAT.In contrast, in July, 36 lakh out of 45.58 lakh eligible entities paid GST, and the Centre collected over Rs 92,000 crore, which translates into nearly 79% compliance. September 20 was the last date for paying GST and filing returns for August, and a majority of the registered dea…

Chit funds choked by GST levy

Goods and Services Tax (GST) on chit funds has crushed this traditional financial instrument, its defenders say.The levy of GST has rendered the chit model cost inefficient and neither the subscribers nor the chit promoters can afford the tax burden, said TS Sivaramakrishnan, General Secretary, All India Association of Chit Funds (AIACF).By bringing chit funds under the ambit of GST, it depicts the step-motherly treatment meted out to the industry that has been singled out for taxing while other NBFCs enjoys 90-100 per cent abatement, he said.Sivaramakrishnan further said: “The chit industry has been pleading to increase the abatement from 30 per cent to 90 or 100 per cent, to make it at par with other NBFCs. The implementation of GST has further dented our prospects as we now end up paying more than the service tax levy.“To explain, we were being charged at an effective rate of 10.5 per cent (15 per cent less abatement of 30 per cent) in the service tax regime but in the GST it has b…

Borewell rig owners in a fix over GST

Borewell rig owners in the small town of Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu, who operate their machines across the country, are worried over the applicability of Goods and Services Tax (GST).Out of nearly 10,000 rig vehicles in the country, nearly half belong to residents of Tiruchengode, nearly 400 km west of Chennai. Providing service to agriculture sector, the industry was earlier exempt from Service Tax and are hoping for exemption under GST Act. However, there is no clarity on the GST as yet.The rigs criss cross the country. Each vehicle costs over ₹1 crore and carries 5-6 workers, sources said.“Since the introduction of GST, our members are not clear how it will impact us. The government should exempt services provided by us to agriculture from GST Act as was done under Service Tax,” said Paari Ganeshan, President, Tiruchengode Lorry Owners Association, and former president of Tiruchengode Rig Owners Association.Supply of water for production of any agricultural produce was excluded fro…

GST cut relief for artisans

In a relief to weavers and artisans, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on handicraft and handloom products has been slashed."The GST Council, which had met in Hyderabad on September 9, has agreed to reduce the GST rates on handloom and handicraft goods following persistent demands of the state government," said finance minister Sashibhusan Behera here today.Handloom and handicraft sectors have been a major employment provider, besides earning valuable foreign exchange for the state. In 2016-17, the state had exported handloom and handicraft products of over Rs 240 crore.After the GST regime came into effect on July 1 this year, a tax varying between 12 per cent and 28 per cent was levied on various handloom and handicraft products, evoking protests from traditional weavers and artisans.The artisans and weavers, however, have been insisting for complete waiver of GST on all handloom and handicraft items. "We want complete waiver of the GST if the government wants to save …

Small businesses are the real heroes of GST

Despite the massive disruption to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the country, anecdotal evidence suggests most of them broadly support the goods and services tax (GST). Yes, they do have their grievances about it. But these relate to the abnormalities in the rate changes, the complexity and cost of adhering to it and the haste with which they have been forced to adopt it.

While the rates have come down on many products, there are others where they have shot up overnight. Biscuits, sauces, jams, ice creams, now attract the highest tax slab of 28% while phenol and detergents, both items of household use, are up to 18%. It isn’t the extent of the hike as much as explaining the consequent price hike to customers that has most traders worried.At the retail end, the problems are compounded by the complexity of computing it. A kirana shop owner selling several disparate items to a customer has to charge separate GST rates for each of the items and then add them up for the final b…

GST Council to meet on October 6, may dole out sops to exporters

The 22nd meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will be held on October 6 to deliberate on GSTN glitches and ironing out issues faced by exporters, a ministry official has said. The meeting was scheduled to be held on October 24 but was rescheduled in view of the engagements following Diwali festival. The next meeting of the Council will be held through video conferencing on October 6, the official said. This will be the second time that the Council meeting would be held through video conferencing. The last such meeting was held on July 17 -- the first meeting after the roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1. The issues that are expected to be discussed include the findings of the Group of Minister (GoM) on technical glitches on the GST Network portal.Also, some relief to exporters could be on cards as Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia headed panel met 8 export promotion associations today to understand their concerns. Source : The Eco…

Finance Ministry issues Clarification on Transition Credit under GST

The Ministry of Finance today issued clarification on Transition Credit claimed under Goods and Services Tax (GST).

There are lot of speculations in the media about the credit of Rs. 65,000 crore claimed by taxpayers in respect of Central Excise and Service Tax in the pre-GST period. Some people are under the impression that because of Rs. 65,000 crore claimed as transition credit, the income of Government this month has plummeted.

Firstly, Rs. 65,000 crore is the credit claimed by the taxpayers in the TRANS 1 form as their balance of credit. It does not mean that they would have used all of this credit for payment of their output tax liability for the month of July 2017.

It may be clarified that this is far from the truth. Secondly, it may be clarified that an amount of Rs. 95,000 crore, which was received in the month of August 2017 for GST, is the amount actually paid in cash other than availing credit.

Thirdly, this figure of transition credit claimed is also not incredibly high, sinc…

A uniform GST rate is a necessity

At the outset, it needs to be stated that what is called Goods and Service Tax is based entirely on a system of Value Added Tax. There are reasons to use this particular term in India, which need not concern us here. However, even in countries where it is called VAT, the tax is not just on goods, but also on trade and services.

The three essential benefits of GST have been stated in a September 2010 OECD paper by Alain Charlet and Jeffrey Owens as follows:• The VAT raises revenue in a neutral and transparent manner. Some suggest that “a VAT is the most effective instrument for generating government revenue” and that “the marginal cost of raising funds for public purposes through VAT is generally lower than it would be if other taxes were employed.”• VAT is relatively secure from serious fraud in a domestic market. The tax relies on a staged collection mechanism in which successive taxpayers are entitled to deduct input tax on purchases and have to account for output tax on sales.• Ac…

Govt ensures Timely Refund of Taxes

There are lot of apprehensions expressed in the media about the problem of blockage of working capital for exporters post-GST. There are various figures also being discussed on the blockage of such funds, which are wild estimates. Such media reports are not based on facts.

i) First of all, it may be mentioned that in respect of 66% value of exports, exporters have preferred the duty drawback scheme instead of taking actual refund of input taxes in the pre-GST regime. Duty drawback scheme was actually extended in the post-GST regime for a period of 3 months, i.e. upto 30th September, 2017, subject to that exporter not taking input tax credit under GST. This means that as of now, for 66% of the value of exports, there is no blockage of funds.

ii) The remaining 33% of exporters always used to prefer a normal refund route for taxes paid on inputs for Central Excise separately and for VAT separately and that was made available to them only after the actual exports took place and, for such cl…

Only Rs 12,000-cr credit claims valid

The government on Friday said only Rs 12,000 crore of the Rs 65,000 crore of input tax credit claimed by assessees for the pre-GST stocks were valid. The governments, both the Centre and states, had got Rs 95,000 crore of revenues from the goods and services tax (GST) for July, the first month of the indirect taxation system. But after claims of Rs 65,000 crore were made for refunds of taxes paid on stocks lying with businesses as of June 30, the government was startled, as that would have meant just Rs 30,000 crore of revenues from GST, which would be shared between the Centre and the states. The finance ministry said Rs 95,000 crore was the amount actually paid in cash, other than availing credit.The Press Trust of India reported the government has estimated valid transitional credit claims of taxpayers in July were just Rs 12,000 crore and not Rs 65,000 crore, as previously claimed. This would give the government a short in the arm in its efforts to mop-up additional resources to …

Under GST, TN’s revenue goes up by 14%

Tamil Nadu's fear of losing revenue because of the implementation of GST may be completely misplaced, going by the revenue accrued to the state government in the first month of the GST regime.The state GST or SGST has increased Tamil Nadu's revenue by 14%, compared to the revenue earned through value added tax in the past. But the commercial taxes department is not ready to jump into conclusion that early.Commercial tax assessees are yet to start filing returns and the Centre has extended the date of filing returns till October. "We have achieved 14% increase in revenue compared to VAT, since the new tax regime was introduced on July 1. The increase can be assessed properly only after we get the returns from the assessees. The SGST may also include inter-state sales, which comes under IGST. This will have to be deducted," said a senior official of commercial taxes department.Tamil Nadu, being a manufacturing state, had opposed implementation of GST as it feared reven…

This festive season, GST to have no impact on online sales

With the festive season gearing up, the past few months, which saw relentless debates on the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the economy, seems to fade away with the plethora of sales on various e-commerce portals.As the new taxation regime by the Modi-led government takes its place in the economy, senior VP-Categories of ShopClues, Nitin Kochhar believes that the GST impact was significant only in the month of July."Immediately post the rollout of GST on July 1, it settled down by August and the sales went back to normal by the beginning of September," Nitin Kochhar told in an email interview.However, he stated that there will be no impact of the GST on the sales or offers that are currently running on various e-commerce platforms, including ShopClues.He also revealed that more focus is being given towards the Fashion and Lifestyle category during the sales, including a complete ramp up of the portfolio with better margins and the launch of exclusive labels. A…

Centre for petrol, diesel under GST regime

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here today that his ministry was in favour of petrol and diesel being included in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.He claimed that the price of these items would come down to “normal” level by Diwali.Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of an official function to inaugurate a skill development centre at Adalaj, Pradhan said he believed that the tax rate on petrol and diesel should be same all over the country as that would be in the people’s interest.He said the Centre had asked the GST Council to consider implementing the new taxation regime in the petroleum sector. Source : The Tribune

CII seeks extension of time for filing GST returns

Industry chamber CII today sought extension of time by two months for filing of GST returns in view of difficulties being faced by businesses.The GST Council has already extended the last date for filing final returns to October 10. CII has now requested for further extension to resolve certain system issues.In view of difficulties of online filing, the industry body suggested that "the due dates for filing GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 should be deferred for another month or two".The chamber also suggested that no penal action should be taken against the trade and industry by the revenue department in the initial six months of the GST launch.The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced on July 1.It said that the GST Network (GSTN) system response should be enhanced to allow download, preview details, and take prints for reconciliation before submission.The industry body also recommended that GSTR-3B should have provision for rounding off Input Tax Credit to nearest rupee.&qu…

Exploring means to refund under GST to exporters by linking GSTR1 with form GSTR-3B: CBEC

- September 23, 2017

Exploring means to refund under GST to exporters by linking GSTR1 with form GSTR-3B: CBEC

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
22-September-2017 15:03 IST Blockage of Working Capital of Exporters
There are lot of apprehensions expressed in the media about the problem of blockage of working capital for exporters post-GST. There are various figures also being discussed on the blockage of such funds, which are wild estimates. Such media reports are not based on facts.
i) First of all, it may be mentioned that in respect of 66% value of exports, exporters have preferred the duty drawback scheme instead of taking actual refund of input taxes in the pre-GST regime. Duty drawback scheme was actually extended in the post-GST regime for a period of 3 months, i.e. upto 30th September, 2017, subject to that exporter not taking input tax credit under GST. This means that as of now, for 66% of the value of exports, there is no blockage of funds.
ii) The remaining 33% of ex…

CBEC releases Concept Note on ‘Pure Agent’

CBEC releases Concept Note on ‘Pure Agent’
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) recently released a concept note on the topic ‘Pure Agent’ under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
In broad sense, a pure agent is one who while making a supply to the recipient, also receives and incurs expenditure on some other supply on behalf of the recipient and claims reimbursement for such supplies from the recipient of the main supply. While the relationship between them (provider of service and recipient of service) in respect of the main service is on a principal to principal basis, the relationship between them in respect of other ancillary services is that of a pure agent.
The important thing to note is that a pure agent does not use the goods or services so procured for his own interest and this fact has to be determined from the terms of the contract.
Another important fact is that, the person who provides any service as a pure agent receives only the actual amount for the s…

Deemed Deduction applicable to Joint Venture Agreements: CBEC Asst Commissioner Clarifies Issues on Construction Services under GST

Deemed Deduction applicable to Joint Venture Agreements: CBEC Asst Commissioner Clarifies Issues on Construction Services under GST
The Assistant Commissioner, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), on Tuesday clarified that one third deemed deduction on account of transfer of land also covers transfers as per the Joint venture agreements.
The Officer, in an application filed by the SI Properties (Kerala) Pvt Ltd, had also clarified that such deduction cannot be availed for unit transferred to the land owner by the Developer.
Presently, construction services are taxable at 18 per cent under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime subject to the provisions of Notification No. 8/2017 (Integrated Tax (rate)). For such services, deemed deduction of one third of value of supply is available on account of transfer of land or undivided share of land if the transactio value includes the value of land transferred as per and delineated as per the provisions of the above Notification.
…

CBEC to Constitute Members of National Anti-Profiteering Authority Soon: Invites Recommendations for Selection

CBEC to Constitute Members of National Anti-Profiteering Authority Soon: Invites Recommendations for Selection
The Directorate General of Safeguards, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) recently asked its officials to recommend names of persons who are eligible to be appointed as members of National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA).
The National Anti-profiteering Authority is tasked with ensuring the full benefits of a reduction in tax on supply of goods or services flow to the consumers. When constituted by the GST Council, the National Anti-profiteering Authority shall be responsible for applying anti-profiteering measures in the event of a reduction in rate of GST on supply of goods or services or, if the benefit of input tax credit is not passed on to the recipients by way of commensurate reduction in prices.
The National Anti-profiteering Authority shall be headed by a senior officer of the level of a Secretary to the Government of India and shall have four technical mem…

GST Transitional Credit Claims: Govt may proceed against 162 Companies, Ask for VAT Returns

GST Transitional Credit Claims: Govt may proceed against 162 Companies, Ask for VAT Returns
The Central Government, being puzzled by the number of transitional credit claims after the rollout of Goods and Services Tax regime, may now issue notice against 162 Companies and may also ask them to submit their Value Added Tax (VAT) returns of earlier tax regime.
The indirect tax body Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) had earlier issued a directive to tax commissioners to verify GST transitional credit claims of over Rs 1 crore made by 162 entities.
According to a report in The Economic Times, such companies which collectively have claimed about Rs 65,000 crore in transitional tax credits, would be issued notices in the coming weeks.
Notices would be issued to companies and explanations would be sought for the amounts claimed in transitional credits. The indirect-tax department has also asked some Hyderabad-based infrastructure businesses to produce last year’s VAT returns, the re…

GST: CBEC issues Concept Note on Advance Ruling

GST: CBEC issues Concept Note on Advance Ruling
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) released a concept note on ‘Advance Ruling’ under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
An advance ruling helps the applicant in planning his activities which are liable for payment of GST in advance. It also brings certainty in determining the tax liability, as the ruling given by the Authority for Advance Ruling is binding on the applicant as well as Government authorities. It also helps in avoiding long drawn and expensive litigation at a later date. Seeking an advance ruling is inexpensive and the procedure is simple and expeditious. It thus provides certainty and transparency to a taxpayer with respect to an issue which may potentially cause a dispute with the tax administration. A legally constituted body called Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) can give a binding ruling to an applicant who is a registered taxable person or is liable to be registered. The advance ruling given …

GST: CBEC Issues Guidelines for division of Tax Payer base between the Centre & State

GST: CBEC Issues Guidelines for division of Tax Payer base between the Centre & State.
Based on the recommendations of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, the Central Government on Wednesday issued guidelines on for the division of tax payer base between the Centre & State.
The Council after Its January and September 2017 meeting had decided that Ninety per cent of the Tax payers below turnover of 1.5 Crore shall be under the administrative control of the State. Remaining 10 per cent shall be controlled by the Central Government. Also, Tax payers above the threshold of 1.5 crore shall be equally divided among the Centre and States.
It was also decided that the division of tax payers in each State shall be done by computer at the State level based on stratified random sampling and could also take into account the geographical location and type of the tax payers.
The circular issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) last day instructed that the State Level…

Notification regarding GST rate for branded cereal, pulses and flour